cruising, vb, kroozing, working on your boat in exotic locations around the Caribbean....Dudley and Becca

Now this is a Welcoming Site!

Becca07/27/2011, Stiltsville and Miami just across the Bay.

We wanted to arrive home before hurricane season cranked up and we did by the skinny sheets of our sails.

Stiltsville is an historic site going back to the days of prohibition! The wealthy connived a brilliant plan to be just far enough offshore in these very clever, very colorful, luxurious escape pads to be free from the law.

Sailing thru the markers guiding mariners past the shallows where these monuments of the daring built their dream homes, gambling houses, party palaces on stilts is humbling. Our adventure was thrilling but pale in comparison to the stories these unique structures can tell.

It's comforting to be home and that's what these gems represent for us. We just can't help feeling emotionally split with the imaginary tug on our hearts that the Caribbean has on us with our new native and cruising friends, the magnificent flora, funny fauna, culture plus love and the welcoming arms of our friends of old and families with arms wide open.

We really, absolutely stink at catching fish. The most asked question about our journey is just that: Do you catch a lot of fish? "NOT", and it's squeaked from our lips more times than we care to admit.

This sargasso beauty is a baby for sure. The real seaweed trophies have lured me and both of us actually into believing that the rod that was bending dramatically midway and the effort bringing it in securing our belief was 'the' big one...was a joke! All the beautiful, creative lures, the practice tying the knots, like the bimini twist, and the anticipation of the catch as it's crackling on the 'barbie' have not produced a fish! What does get us fish is cash...and the generosity (and or pity) of many.

So our desire to show off and show up at home with a stunning mahi mahi, wahoo or tuna was futile and this teeny, weeny specimen is our bounty! Lame.

I've gotten some pretty darn good photography from the experiences we been blessed to have for the last 3.5 years. This vantage point would've spiced things up a bit, alternating between the airfoils from the Cessna and the canvas from our sloop. This "hot dog" flying in so close had me thinking I could've climbed to the top of the mast and simulated his daring height thru the boats. Thrilling catching him catching us!